The World as IE Sees It

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A lot has happened since I’ve neglected this
blog. The biggest change, however, has
been within myself.
It’s been two months since my mom passed. Sometimes, it feels as though it happened
yesterday, while other times, it feels as if that day was so long ago. I realized that I have been numb for many
months. Since maybe October or September
or perhaps longer than that. I posted an account of my mom’s battle on my author blog.
The business of dying weighs on the living, on the
surviving, as if the entirety of the hourglass sands dumped on you. There’s the funeral, the casket, the cemetery
plot, the headstone, the obituary, the ordering of death certificates. Then, taking her name off of things, most of
which needed to wait until the state mailed the death certificates. Yes, plural.
You have to give them places like the bank and registrar of deeds.
Doing all this stuff takes a long time. And then, there’s the matter of telling the
stranger on the other line what happened.
After…

With all that is going on in the
country scandal wise, it is hard to just choose one on which to
focus. But, I will try. This lack of privacy we’ve been joking
about for years has become truth. Unbelievably, some are okay with
it. They say it is necessary and all that rot. Fighting terror...
blah, blah, blah.
I have two words: Downward Spiral.
Well, I do have more than just two, but I digress.
There are those who say, “I have
nothing to hide.” Is that the point? Do we need something to hide
to want to keep our lives private? People do not install fences
around their properties because they want to do something nefarious
in their backyards. We want to choose what we share with others, not
be forced to stand naked in town square. Well, at least that way we
would know that we were naked in town square. The problem is that
all of us are being treated like criminals. Unless we go to the
airport, we do not know that every inch of our lives is being
scrutinized. Our Constituti…

When I do research for my books, sure, I turn to internet sources and books for information. I also interview people who have experience with certain things and do or learn things for myself. One of my works in progress is the first book of a mystery series where an injured homicide detective turned PI has to relearn how to shoot. Recently, I went to a local pistol range to take a private lesson on shooting a handgun.

It was my first time shooting any kind of gun. The instructor was surprised that I had never even shot a bb gun. I learned on a .22 caliber semi-automatic pistol. The former Vietnam Marine started with basic gun safety. Although I wore a turtleneck, he warned me about wearing open necked shirts for future shooting. The empty shell casings are hot when they fly out of the gun and if you are wearing a shirt with an open neck, there is a possibility that the casing can hit your skin and burn you. (Always good to know.) At the shooting bay, he went over grip, stanc…

As of this typing, Senator Rand Paul has been filibustering for seven hours so that Brennan will not be confirmed as CIA director. Texas Senator Ted Cruz and others have now joined him.

There is something inherently wrong with the government being allowed to drone strike its own people on its own soil (let alone elsewhere). We should not fear our government. We should not be afraid or punished for speaking the truth, no matter how ugly it may be. We should not have to fear having our right to defend ourselves taken away. We should not have to fear that our privacy is a thing of the past. We should not have to live in fear.

I applaud Doctor Paul and his efforts. I applaud Senator Cruz. Someone needs to say no. Actually, many more than one or two need to say no. No to this insanity. No to all this spending. No to eroding our rights. No to destroying our country.

I may not be a lawmaker or hold any public office, but I, too, will stand and say no.

Every so often, I enjoy store-bought breakfast cookies with my morning coffee. When I was growing up, my parents would occasionally buy a certain brand of Italian-style breakfast treats. How I loved them. The soft anise flavored sponges and the S-shaped cookies were my favorites. They still are.

Today, I decided to indulge in these cookies. Earlier than usual this morning, I headed out to my local really big super duper store to fill my tummy with some of the cookies I knew since childhood. After only finding four types of cookies made by that certain brand, they came home with me.

As the cookies rested on the table, coffee beans whirred in the grinder. Hot water mingled with the oils, filling my kitchen with that warm, intoxicating coffee aroma.

Wanting to satiate my Italian-style cookie craving, I began to cut the plastic coverings. When I grabbed the anise flavored sponges, my heart sank. Short of time and without thinking, I had put my trust in my really big super duper sto…

2012 is almost over. We’re supposedly going to dive off the so-called fiscal cliff. There is a discussion about taking away certain guns and more gun control. The America we know, or think we know, is slipping away from us.

Before the ball drops and the bungee cordless cliff diving begins, I wanted to share a few factual tidbits combined with my overactive imagination. I am a writer, after all. Let me set the scene:

The year is 20NE (2075CE). The cities in what remains of the U.S. have been razed. Eco-friendly Pod Cities have been built in their place. A 17 year-old boy and his 14 year-old sister, Xavier and Nickie, escape from Pod City one-five, finding a settlement of people that should not exist.

From Chapter 14 of my dystopian novel, Tricentennial:I wanted to sink in my chair wallowing in hopelessness until Nickie asked, “How did all this happen? I mean, why are we out here, all alone, without the comforts that the people in the Pod Cities enjoy?”“That’s a long, convolut…

Unmanned flying machines that are typically operated by a person using a game controller often fly over places such as Pakistan. For the most part, they watch and attack.

Drone strikes happen much more frequently since Obama has been living in the White House. According to the New American Foundation, there has been 339 total number of drone strikes in Pakistan since 2004. Of those, 293 were since 2009. In 2009, only 2 strikes happened under Bush.

Let’s break down the numbers. Under 8 years of Bush, there were 48 drone strikes in Pakistan. In 4 years of Obama, there have been 291. The latest was just the 29th of November. I shudder to think what another 4 years will bring. Troops will still remain after the 2014 end date.

Now, these drone attacks do not happen on their own. The President must authorize each and every attack. That’s a lot of drone strikes for a guy who said that he was bringing the troops home and ending our wars. And let’s not forget the drone strike in Yeme…